Baltimore schools announce switch to bottled water
This just in: The city school system will provide bottled water at all its schools from now on, after 10 water fountains at four schools -- City College, Douglass High, Carver Vocational-Technical High and Northwood Elementary -- failed lead testing. Lead had supposedly been removed from those fountains, but the fountains failed on a retest. The school system says it will be cheaper to provide bottled water than remove lead from all the water fountains.
Any BCPSS parents or students interested in commenting (on the record, with your names) for my story tomorrow, particularly at the four schools named above, drop me a line at sara.neufeld@baltsun.com.
Comments
where is the lead coming from?
Posted by: heather | November 7, 2007 3:47 PM
No surprise-- they worked on fountains at our school for several years. Occasionally we'd see the "Okay to drink" sign posted (who will be the first guinea pig, right?)...only to have it taken down soon after and replaced with "Do NOT Drink! Signs. I've been tempted to add the word "Achtung!" and a skull and cross bones, but not needed, as the kids won't go near it. Now, here is the rub-- when they say it's cheaper than fixing, it sure is not as cheap as "free" water from Baltimore (which is pretty pure until it enters whatever lead pipes). I see the Deer Park truck pull up and drop off about 80-120 5 gallon bottles every week, and we have coolers on every floor in several places. I've tried to price this out in my mind, but whatever it is, I sure wish we could spend the money on new text books....
Posted by: VoiceForSchoolTruth | November 7, 2007 8:36 PM